Preceptorships for First and Second Year Students

About Preceptorships

A preceptorship is a mentoring experience in which a practicing physician volunteers to give personal instruction, training, and supervision to a medical student during the first two years of medical school.  Preceptorships offer the preclinical student an opportunity to follow a patient over time, to get to know the particular clinical field and to experience a clinical setting over a period of eight weeks. Students report that preceptorships can be an excellent way of preparing for board examinations and clinical training.

How to schedule a preceptorship

  • Students must complete one preceptorship during the first year of the basic science curriculum. WWAMI students are scheduled through their ICM course.
  • Students should begin by contacting the department of interest in advance (normally by the end of the previous quarter). For preceptorships beginning in autumn quarter students may finalize arrangements during the first week of the quarter. Each department has a preceptorship coordinator who can help students connect with a preceptor in their field of interest and provide a faculty code for registration. Students may not start a preceptorship without first being registered through the University.
  • Preceptorships are available in autumn, winter, and spring quarters. Some preceptorships have prerequisites such as a prior preceptorship or second year standing. 
  • Students must register for each preceptorship course prior to the registration deadline through MYUW.  To register, students request both an SLN number and a faculty code through the preceptorship coordinator. 
  • When contacting the preceptorship coordinator, plan to share your interests and availability, plan to have alternate times and quarters in mind.
  • Students are strongly encouraged to consider completing more than one preceptorship and having at least one experience with a physician in primary care (Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, or Pediatrics). 

Other requirements

  • Students need to fulfill this ~32-hour graduation requirement by scheduling a minimum of 8 four-hour sessions over eight weeks during one of the first three quarters (two semesters at WWAMI sites) of medical school.
  • UWSOM preceptorship courses are available for UWSOM medical students only and are not available for visiting and non-matriculated UWSOM medical students.
  • Preceptorships may be located at sites beyond the University hospital. 
  • All precepting physicians must have a University of Washington clinical appointment to their department.
  • Specific departmental requirements are available through the department preceptorship coordinator. Availability within each department may be limited. Preceptorships are registered on a first come first served basis.
  • UWSOM does not waive late registration fees. Registration deadlines are the same as the upper campus Registration Period II dates which can be found at http://www.washington.edu/students/reg/calendar.html
  • Students should follow the normal university policies for absences and weather and should take care to contact their preceptor in a timely fashion if they need to miss scheduled time with the preceptor, also arranging to make up missed time.
  • Information for preceptors is available online (below) as well as from the department preceptorship coordinator.

Preceptorship resources

If you have questions or need more information, or if you are a physician who would like to become a preceptor, please contact Julie McNalley, Curriculum Development Manager, at 206.616.8637 or jmcnalle@uw.edu.